The photograph is by Jessica Hilltout from Belgium. The child in this photo is from Ghana, not South Africa. You can see more of her stunning, copyrighted, work here, http://wird.com.ua/archives/181229. The title of this series is AMEN, Imperfection and Faces.

This story was recorded by Leonard Zunin in his book Contact: The First Four Minutes. It did not include the words spoken to each other or the belief that tribe sees every person as good. Here is an excerpt (I just picked it up in my school library):

“When a person acts irresponsibly or unjustly, he is placed in the center of the village, alone and unfettered. All work ceases, and every man, woman and child in the village gathers in a large circle around the accused individual. Then each person in the tribe, regardless of age, begins to talk aloud to the accused, one at a time, about all the good things the person in the center of the circle has done in his lifetime. Every incident, every experience that can be recalled with any detail and accuracy is recounted…the person is symbolically and literally welcomed back into the tribe…Perhaps this overwhelming positive bombardment not only strengthens his positive self-image, but also helps him choose to live up to the ‘expectations’ of his tribe” (Zunin 207-208).

“Does it really matter if it’s a myth or not. The world needs more of this, whether its sources are valid or not.”

Yes, it matters. A white lie can bite someone in the ass. That same line of thought is what’s causing issues in the world right now.

Someone made up fake rape statistics in the UK. Their response after people found out that they were made up was that “it could have helped people so it’s okay”. Now those fake rape statistics, which are still being used to this day, has caused something bad to happen. Iran used them to counter protesters that didn’t want Iran on the United Nations Women’s Rights counsel. If you know anything about Iran’s history with women, you should know that this is a very bad thing.

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